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Apothem
Command pipeline

Pipeline commands

Apothem pipeline command reference — the /plan flow and audit command catalog.

Apothem ships an architecture-aware /plan pipeline, a thirteen-stage /research pipeline, plus an eleven-command audit sequence — giving every project a structured path from raw prose to production-grade, multi-axis-reviewed code, and from a raw idea to a disseminated, peer-reviewed paper.

Pipeline overview

flowchart LR
    accTitle: Plan pipeline command flow
    accDescr: Left-to-right flowchart of the apothem plan pipeline from the spec stage through the generate and review stages, then through a conditional architecture-bearing decision that either runs the design stage or skips directly to the execute stage. The orthogonal audit stage wraps the spec-through-review span as a closed remediation loop, and the re-entrant amend stage revises an existing suite and returns it to review.
    A[/plan-spec] --> B[/plan-generate]
    B --> C[/plan-review]
    AUD[/plan-audit<br/>orthogonal: wraps spec → review] -.->|closed-loop remediation| A
    AM[/plan-amend<br/>re-entrant: revises an existing suite] -.->|re-review| C
    C --> Q{Architecture-bearing suite?}
    Q -->|yes| F[/plan-design<br/>emit _inputs/design.md]
    Q -->|no| D[/plan-execute]
    F --> D
    D --> E[/plan-status]
    D --> G[Audit review sequence]
    G --> H[Completion milestone]

The planning stages

The pipeline ships as eight first-class slash commands, one per stage — each independently invocable as /plan-<stage>. The /plan orchestrator drives them from a mission to an executed suite.

StageRolePosition
/plan-specForge — prose to specHead
/plan-generateGenerator — spec to plan suiteMid-chain
/plan-reviewAuditor — forensic plan auditMid-chain
/plan-designArchitect — _inputs/design.md for architecture-bearing suitesConditional gate
/plan-executeExecutor — phase executionTerminal
/plan-statusReporter — read-only statusRead-only
/plan-auditGuardian — closed-loop wrap of spec → generate → reviewOrthogonal (pre-execute)
/plan-amendSteward — re-entrant amendment of an existing suiteRe-entrant

/plan-audit is orthogonal to the linear flow, not a stage within it. It wraps /plan-spec → /plan-generate → /plan-review as a single closed loop, runs only the missing upstream stages, actively remediates findings, and leaves the suite ready for /plan-execute. It is distinct from the audit review sequence below, which audits an executed codebase rather than a plan suite.

/plan-design is not a universal ceremony. /plan-review classifies whether the suite changes architecture-bearing surfaces. If yes, /plan-design emits the design trace that /plan-execute and /architecture-review consume. If no, the reviewed suite moves directly into execution.

The research pipeline

The research pipeline ships as thirteen first-class slash commands, one per stage — each independently invocable as /research-<stage>, chained by a Sequence Gate and a Handoff Manifest, under ten rigor mandates (authoritative sources, reproducibility, falsifiability, citation integrity, preregistration, ethics / conflicts, statistical rigor, open-science / FAIR, reporting-guideline conformance, theoretical grounding / impact).

flowchart LR
    accTitle: Research pipeline command flow
    accDescr: Left-to-right flowchart of the apothem research pipeline from the ideate stage through spec, theory, sources, synthesis, proposal, study design, experiment, analysis, paper, and peer review to publish and disseminate, with a revision loop from review back to paper.
    RI[/research-ideate] --> RS[/research-spec]
    RS --> RT[/research-theory]
    RT --> RSO[/research-sources]
    RSO --> RSY[/research-synthesis]
    RSY --> RPR[/research-proposal]
    RPR --> RD[/research-design]
    RD --> RE[/research-experiment]
    RE --> RA[/research-analysis]
    RA --> RP[/research-paper]
    RP --> RR[/research-review]
    RR --> RPU[/research-publish]
    RPU --> RDI[/research-disseminate]
    RR -.->|revision loop| RP
StageRolePosition
/research-ideateFormulate the problem — candidate questions from a domain seedHead
/research-specFrame the question — falsifiable hypotheses + scopeMid-chain
/research-theoryConceptual framework + theory-of-changeMid-chain
/research-sourcesSystematic source collection with a re-runnable search recordMid-chain
/research-synthesisSOTA map + gap analysisMid-chain
/research-proposalObjectives + feasibility + contingencies + impact + data plan + preregistration plan; funder-call matrix or resubmission responseMid-chain
/research-designStudy design + preregistrationMid-chain
/research-experimentRun + record, reproducibleMid-chain
/research-analysisResults + statisticsMid-chain
/research-paperTop-tier paper draftMid-chain
/research-reviewPeer-review-grade critiqueMid-chain
/research-publishVenue package + submissionMid-chain
/research-disseminateDissemination + impact + FAIR archivalTerminal

The /research wrapped-workflow orchestrator drives these stages from raw question to published paper (it is not itself a stage), checking each stage's output independently before the next stage builds on it; --quick runs /research-sources + /research-synthesis only for a single-shot cited report.

The empirical stages (sources, design, experiment, analysis) and the writing stages (paper, review, publish, disseminate) additionally draw on operationalizing rigor surfaces — fair multi-method comparison, comparator provenance, an experiment-program scaffold, a compute-utilization plan, an opt-in autonomous experiment loop, a definition-of-done advancement gate, blinding with staged disclosure, a search record, study allocation and power planning, analysis discipline, plan contingencies, figure integrity, and talk and poster planning — that add operational detail to the ten mandates without extending them.

Audit review sequence

The /audit wrapped-workflow orchestrator sweeps all eleven dimensions below as a single parallel pass — the audit-fortress analogue of /plan and /research — synthesizing one deduplicated, severity-triaged findings report (report-only; remediation routes to /elevate). Each dimension is also individually invocable.

The /fortress wrapped-workflow orchestrator closes the loop /audit reports: it detects through /audit, verifies each finding, remediates every survivor at its owning surface, re-audits in a bounded loop, and gates the result through /release-readiness — the production-hardening analogue of /plan and /research.

CommandQuality area
/code-reviewCode quality
/code-auditCode corpus
/security-auditOWASP / ASVS
/perf-auditPerformance
/architecture-reviewArchitecture
/ux-reviewDeveloper experience
/a11y-auditAccessibility
/docs-reviewDocumentation
/dependency-auditDependencies
/supply-chain-auditSupply chain
/threat-model-auditThreat model

All commands

Every shipped command, generated from its definition under src/apothem/commands/. Commands without a hand-written page get a page generated from the same definition.

CommandSummary
/planRuns the planning pipeline (spec, generate, review, design) with independent verification, confirming at each hand-off; execute stays a manual step the …
/plan-specTurns free-form prose, notes or rough requirements into a spec-grade _spec/spec.md that keeps the author's wording and settles open questions by inquiry.
/plan-generateGenerates a full plan suite (master plan, progress log, decision notes, per-phase files) from a written spec or raw prose.
/plan-reviewReads an existing plan suite line by line for fidelity, consistency, completeness and risk, then applies only the revisions the user approves.
/plan-designWrites the architectural design for a reviewed plan suite at _inputs/design.md: components, interfaces, decisions and diagrams.
/plan-executeUse to implement one phase of a reviewed plan suite: reads the phase file and progress notes, verifies prerequisites and review scorecards, implements each …
/plan-amendChanges an existing plan suite without losing resolved decisions, re-deriving only the affected spec, phases and notes.
/plan-auditAudits a plan suite across spec, generate and review, then fixes findings in a loop without per-revision approval until none remain or the cap is hit.
/plan-statusReports plan-suite progress from its tracking files across tasks, phases and artifacts, read-only.
/researchRuns the research pipeline from idea to peer-reviewed paper, verifying each stage hand-off and halting before data collection or publication.
/research-ideateFinds a research question from zero by scanning opportunities, gaps, and invalidated hypotheses, then ranking candidates.
/research-specFrames a research question or notes into a testable spec: falsifiable hypotheses, inclusion and exclusion scope, success metrics.
/research-theoryBuilds the conceptual framework for a framed research question: theory of change, constructs with operational definitions and a conceptual-model diagram.
/research-sourcesCollects and screens the literature for a ratified research spec: deduplication, ranking and extraction with provenance.
/research-synthesisReconciles collected sources into a state-of-the-art map, a literature matrix and a research-gap statement.
/research-proposalTurns a research gap and theoretical framework into a fundable proposal: SMART aims, feasibility, risk register with contingencies, impact pathway, data …
/research-designTurns a synthesized research gap into testable predictions, a study design and a frozen preregistration.
/research-experimentRuns the preregistered study protocol and records raw data with provenance: experiment log, data, and reproducibility manifest (environment, seed, version …
/research-analysisRuns the preregistered statistical analysis on collected data: effect sizes with confidence intervals, multiple-comparison correction, robustness checks, …
/research-paperAssembles a paper draft from the synthesis, study design, and analysis, with every citation checked to resolve.
/research-reviewHostile peer review of a paper, from a research suite or a supplied PDF or text: scores novelty, rigor, reproducibility, ethics; ranks revisions.
/research-publishBuilds the venue submission package for a reviewed paper: template formatting, cover letter, data and code availability statement, ethics and conflict …
/research-disseminatePlans post-acceptance dissemination and impact: preprint announcement, FAIR data and code archive, altmetrics tracking, rebuttal loop.
/auditSweeps a repository across all eleven review dimensions in one multi-agent run and returns one verified, severity-ranked report; it never fixes anything.
/a11y-auditAudits rendered pages of a web surface against WCAG 2.2 AA and reports severity-ranked findings per page, without fixing anything.
/architecture-reviewReviews a repository against its design document and layer rules, reporting boundary violations, coupling and wiring gaps as ranked findings.
/code-auditCross-file forensic audit: hidden coupling, type-hint gaps, coverage holes, dead and duplicate code.
/code-reviewReviews source files one at a time for readability, naming, complexity, idiom fit and comment quality, and reports severity-ranked findings without editing.
/dependency-auditAudits direct and transitive dependencies for known vulnerabilities, license conflicts, deprecation and loose pins, ranking findings per dependency.
/docs-reviewReviews documentation pages for prose clarity, broken links, code-block tags, citations and public-API coverage, reporting severity-ranked findings per page.
/perf-auditAudits an Apothem installation's per-class budgets (hooks, ecosystem verification, conformity gate, tests, agents, shell, lint) with its benchmark drivers, …
/security-auditAudits a repository's security posture: secrets, injection, unsafe deserialization, path traversal, vulnerable dependencies.
/supply-chain-auditAudits a repository's release pipeline: build provenance, artifact signing, SBOM completeness, pinned CI actions and minimum permissions.
/threat-model-auditThreat-models a repository with STRIDE per element and trust boundaries, classifying actors and rating residual risk.
/ux-reviewReviews a repository's developer experience from a first-time user's view: CLI ergonomics, error messages, install flow and docs discoverability.
/fortressHardens a repository end to end: runs the audit sweep, verifies each finding, remediates survivors through the surgical-guard, secret-rotation and vuln-triage …
/elevateWhole-repository elevation: runs the audit sweep, then critiques naming, structure, storytelling and extensibility, remediates what it finds (deletions are …
/evalRuns one evaluation campaign for a language model or prompt: scores each output over a dataset and reports metrics by category plus regressions against a …
/freshifyUse when a repository must be made fresh and release-clean: purges caches and stale artifacts, removes legacy narrative and back-references, normalizes file …
/github-deploy-freshUse when a GitHub repository needs one clean first release on origin/main: a single v0.1.0 release commit, green workflow cards, a first-version changelog, and …
/github-deploy-nextUse to run the next release cycle on a GitHub repository: merge ready pull requests, resolve the issues the release addresses, derive the SemVer bump from …
/projectifyBuilds the Description, Instruction and knowledge files for a chat-app Project or custom assistant through guided questions, within the platform's context …
/release-readinessPre-release gate sweep: use before shipping a repository to check lint, format, types, tests, dependency and supply-chain risk, visibility surfaces, changelog …
/test-suiteAuthors and runs behavior-first tests for a repository, triages failures and reports coverage gaps on critical paths.
/workflowUse to run a non-trivial mission as an independent multi-agent workflow: parallel subagents under named return contracts, refute-by-default verification of …

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